(a) Field
The subject matter disclosed generally relates to thermoelectric heat conversion. More specifically, it relates to thermoelectric recovery of heat waste from electronic devices.
(b) Related Prior Art
It is well known that energy consumption should be reduced where possible, because of environmental considerations, resource rarity and increased prices, among others.
A specific example includes the overall energy consumption of electronic devices, which is increasing on a global level. The same applies at a smaller scale: the cost for running a server, such as internet servers or data servers found in a data centers, is mainly based on maintenance and energy consumption. The predominance of the internet and the increasing popularity of cloud solutions push toward finding solutions to reduce the energy consumption of electronic devices such as servers, supercomputers, computers and the like.
One of the possible venues for this consumption reduction lies in the use of the unavoidable heat waste produced by the electronic components of an electronic device.
Despite various attempts to convert waste heat from a variety of heat sources using thermoelectric devices, most of them fail to provide a viable solution. Thermoelectric devices, such as Peltier generators, usually require a high temperature difference to work efficiently. In many heat recovery applications, heat is not sufficiently channeled to the heat generator, resulting in low efficiency.
Applications directed to the conversion of heat waste from electronic devices or electronic components often face a different type of issue. The thermoelectric generator does not dissipate heat fast enough for the electronic component (e.g. CPU, memory, chipset, etc.), which overheats. If the electronic component stops working, the heat recovery apparatus becomes useless.
There is therefore a need for an apparatus and associated method for extracting electrical energy from the waste heat without causing the electronic component to overheat.
Existing system, for example in US2006/0086118A1, fail to provide necessary heat diversion. There is a need for an apparatus in which the necessary heat diversion rate could be provided.